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Obama Explains Why The U.S. Isn't Pulling Out Of Afghanistan After All - Live Feed
Obama explains the "strategy" shift in Afghanistan:
Background
As the old adage goes: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and as the recent bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz clearly shows, the US military presence in Afghanistan is doing wonders for stability and security which is presumably why the Obama administration has just done a 180 on troop deployment in the country.
Under Obama’s previous plan, Washington would withdraw most of the 9,800 troops operating in the country by the end of next year, leaving a force of just 1,000.
Now, all 9,800 troops will remain for “most” of next year and 5,500 troops will remain in 2017.
Here’s more from WSJ:
President Barack Obama will say Thursday that he has ordered a significant slowdown in the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, senior administration officials said, a decision that marks a major reversal in his war plan and effectively hands the conflict over to his successor.
Under pressure at home and abroad, Mr. Obama decided—following a strategy review—to maintain the current American force of 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of next year, and to leave a force of 5,500 U.S. troops in the country in 2017, when he leaves office, the senior administration officials said.
The announcement will mark a dramatic shift in strategy by scrapping Mr. Obama’s previous plan, in place since last year, to steadily withdraw the 9,800 U.S. troops through 2016 and to leave only about 1,000 at the U.S. embassy by the time he leaves office.
But a spike in insurgent violence and uneven performance by Afghan forces led top U.S. commanders to openly question the president’s strategy and brought exhortations from U.S. allies to change course. This left Mr. Obama little choice but to scuttle his plan to wind down U.S. involvement, marking another setback for his efforts to untangle the U.S. from more than a decade of war.
In a further strategy change, the 5,500 remaining troops will be stationed at points far beyond the Afghan capital of Kabul, officials said, serving in Jalalabad in the east, Kandahar in the south, and at Bagram Air Field.
The shift follows a sharp rise in violence, including an assault by Taliban militants who temporarily seized control last month of the northern city of Kunduz. The policy reversal also comes amid growing concerns that a drawdown of U.S. forces in the country could create an opening for Islamic State militants who have gained control of large parts of Iraq and Syria.
And from The New York Times:
Some of the troops will continue to train and advise Afghan forces, while others will carry on the search for Qaeda fighters and militants from the Islamic State and other groups who have found a haven in Afghanistan, they said.
In abandoning his ambition to bring home almost all American troops before leaving office, Mr. Obama appears to be acknowledging that Afghan security forces are still not near ready to hold off the Taliban on their own.
The insurgents are now spread through more parts of the country than at any point since 2001, according to the United Nations, and last month the Taliban scored their biggest victory of the war, seizing the northern city of Kunduz and holding it for more than two weeks before pulling back on Tuesday.
(Taliban presence in Afghanistan)
Yet even before Kunduz fell to the Taliban, the administration had been under growing pressure from the military and others in Washington, including Congress, to abandon plans that would have cut by about half the number of troops in Afghanistan next year, and then drop the American force to about 1,000 troops based only at the embassy in Kabul by the start of 2017.
Now, instead of falling back to the embassy — a heavily fortified compound in the center of Kabul — the administration officials said on Wednesday that the military would be able to maintain its operations at Bagram Air Field to the north of Kabul, the main American hub in Afghanistan, and at bases outside Kandahar in the country’s south and Jalalabad in the east.
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan with President Obama on Tuesday. American officials say keeping troop levels is partly designed to aid counterterrorism.U.S. to Delay Pullout of Troops From Afghanistan to Aid StrikesMARCH 24, 2015
All three bases are crucial for counterterrorism operations and for flying drones that are used by the military and the C.I.A., which had also argued for keeping troops in Afghanistan to help protect its own assets.
But the recent fighting in Kunduz also exposed the limits of the foreign forces now in Afghanistan, which total 17,000, including American and NATO troops. It took only a few hundred Taliban members to chase thousands of Afghan soldiers and police officers from Kunduz, and the Afghans struggled to take back the city even with help from American airstrikes and Special Operations forces.
So we suppose when Obama warns Putin that Russia risks getting itself into a “quagmire” in Syria, at least the US President is speaking from experience.
This means the US has now failed to extricate itself from not one, but two Mid-East wars. Note the amusing thing about this: ISIS has now been cited as a reason to keep troops in Afghanistan, meaning that thanks to the activities of a group whose fighters received assistance from the West and its allies, America is forced to remain mired in the same two wars it’s been mired in for over a decade and those two wars were themselves triggered by the largest terrorist attack on US soil in history which was perpetrated by a group that got its start with funding and support from the US when Osama bin Laden was fighting the Soviets in ... Afghanistan.
In short, The White House’s decision to keep troops on the ground is just the latest example of constantly compounding Mid-East foreign policy blunders. One misstep begets another, begets another, and on, and on.
Now we’re reasonably sure there’s some truth to the Taliban offensive excuse and we have no doubt that the Afghan army is ill-equipped to deal properly with the threat, but one is also left to wonder whether part of the goal here is to keep a sizeable troop presence in the region as a kind of contingency plan against what might or might not happen in Syria and Iraq. After all, warhawks in the US have blamed America's troop drawdowns in Iraq for the rise of Islamic State and indeed, if one wanted an excuse to maintain a military presence in a volatile, yet strategically critical region, it always helps when Sunni militants that you and your allies have at one time or another supported are still running around the desert wreaking havoc.
Whatever the case, this means that there will be 10,000 US troops on the ground in Afghanistan for the duration of Russia and Iran's operations in Syria and Iraq and seen in that light, the timing of this announcement doesn't seem like a coincidence.
Oh, and by the way, the additional cost to the US taxpayer of keeping the "extra" troops on the ground: about $5 billion per year.
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The US has not left Japan or Germany or Italy since WW II. It's a truism that US troops never leave. US troops will be in Afghanistan forever.
Afghanistan: The place where empires go to die.
Canceler-In-Chief is hard at work. ;-)
Looney
Hell, I'll say it......Bushes fault!
We need more Republicans in office to pay for an even bigger war with all of their Pixie dust.
Mommas don't let your Republicans grow up to be Progressives....let them be Doctors and Lawyers and such.
I smell John McCain.
Next will come carpet-bombing with B-52s. Anything else from the Vietnam script we can dig up?
Lies squared make for consequences bitches.
Must protect the poppy fields. Black ops is going to need that revenue with looming federal budgetary issues.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/heroin-use-grows-u-s-poppy-crops-thriv...
Somebody's bucking for another Peace Prize
More lies! How many campaign promises has Obama broken? Just goes to show you, politicians will promise anything to get elected and once they get in, they do whatever they want (or whatever they're told)
I don't think that Vlad wants to get involved back in Afghanistan again? No pipeline issues, perhaps just "Face"? Go for it Obumboy...
Well, Choom King can't afford to lose Afghanistan after all the scathing remarks about losing Syria to the Russians and the potential to lose Iraq to the Iranians no matter how many American kids have to be sacrificed to the God of War.
ZH, you're just being to hard on the Beav!
ZH, you're just being hard on the narcissistic, lying, communist, muslim, king Vag!
FIFY
Well, what's the sense in having a No Bell Piece Prize if you're not going to use it, right.
Until the last hospital falls...
A Global Force For Good©
Their foreign policy has now shifted to "do we have a foothold left? Anywhere?"
I would like to say that this guy is a mockery but really and truly we started Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Georgia.. shall I go on? Now, some of you may not that not all of these were "started" by us but we certainly catalyzed. Additionally, others may note that not all of these occured on Obama's watch. That's fine. Because when it comes to foreign policy there is little difference between W and O.
The only difference at present is that Obama's weakness has emboldened Russia/Iran/China and they know that we are flat footed.
Always remember "Fuck the EU". Because with friends like us (US), who needs enemies.
"Us." "...the US."
Who? Victoria Nuland is Jewish. The think tanks, media and lobby groups that got the US into Iraq were Jewish. The people that propped up the economy for the pet scape goat of 911 were Jewish. (Alan Greenspan, etc.)
"Us?"
My Pet Scape Goat.
Book G.W. Bush read on 911.
Other than growing poppies, after all these years I still haven't figured out WTF we are supposedly doing there. Wouldn't it be better for all concerned just to print money for the MIC ?
Eventually you have to prove that your toys work and that you can still break things.
Of course there's no clause in the contract about putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Plus, print for drug co's and doctors.
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0220_drug_overdose_deaths.html
http://beforeitsnews.com/libertarian/2015/10/why-is-hillary-clinton-so-u...
Cause she suffers from penis envy?
She looked in the mirror this morning.
So, Obama is saying tha Putin is getting himself into a quagmire in Syria (despite the fact he's clearly winning), but meanwhile Obama is leaving troops in Afghanistan (The Graveyard of Empires) which is, apparently, not a quagmire.
Do I have that about right?
US is in Afghanistan out of strength, which is why we are winning.
Russia is in Syria out of weakness which is why they are losing.
-brought to you by the Ministry of Truth
We are there to learn how to battle a civilian rebel force tired of imperial government shit.
Coming soon to a city and/or town near you.
So can we start saying that it's Obama's fault?
As in the accelerated, massive decay of moral and social fiber over the last 6 years?
Oh come on, in the interest of diversity, he should get the accolade.
It was Bush's fault to get in and Obama's fault not to exit fast enough
as for moral decay, politicians aren't responsible for that. one of the few things you really can't attribute to politicians, as much as you can't make maggots responsible for the putrefaction they gorge upon
Was it the peasants the rescinded Glass-Steagle or the politicians?
Who controls the Ctrl+P button?
Did the peasants rise up and demand ObombyaCare?
Who left the border open to invasion?
Are "We The People" asking for the TPP to be rammed down our throats?
Air America? That opium doesn't move itself.
Cheaper to grow poppies in Colorado. Skip the middleman. Those empty ski slopes in summer would be just the ticket.
Can't let all that opium and heroin production go to waste...
Sending assassins to kill our own
Why not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Igloo_White ?
TS/SCI back in the day - more here: http://thefutureofthings.com/3902-igloo-white-the-automated-battlefield/ if technology gives you a buzz.
Maybe a cool 60's soundtrack.
They have to secure the opium, they can't leave
Need the cashflow now more then every to keep the shadow system turning.
With the dollar collapse those heroin bricks will be the only way to finance the CIA retirement plans. Those Langley boyzz will never leave that nest egg.
Did Odoofus realize that there Will be blame in history?
FORWARD PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE'S PARADISE!
nice try dopey...FYI, We could've fully funded more'n a dozen iraq campaigns with what obama (8 plus trillion) and the fed (4 plus trillion) have added to our debt and inflation (deflating the cash in your pocket) stimuli during the last 6 years. if you're going to bitch about spending, you best get a clue first.
But but but ... the troops woz gonna leave after Obama was elected - remember? First he was going to have a "troop surge" and then they woz all gonna leave!!! Nobel Pieces Prizes all round!
Wot? Nooooooooo... He couldn't have possibly lied or sumthing. These troops must be in a different Afghanistan!
.
.
.
... you really can fool some of the peoples all the time!
... maybe the troops can get married and have kids over there and then those kids would be Afghan and when they grow up and their mums and dads retire the US will have no moar US troops in Afghanistan!
Sshhhhhh! Maybe I shouldn't give them ideas ...
a differrent Afghanistan? very funny! +1! btw, speaking of having kids, did you ever watch that movie 'Children Of Men'?
No.
It's a great movie.
Sounds like I'd better check it out then.
How could we leave, too many hospitals still standing and wedding venues still booked solid, Mission is NOT YET Accomplished.
Rule #1: Presidents don't do shit.
Any questions, refer to rule #1.
Two fucking dogs locked together.
He can't pull out.
It redefines "threat" doesn't it?
Most Afghanistanis are so clueless they probably don't even know he won the Piece Prize, the little trophy the piece-loving Norwegians are so proud to give out.
Peas Prize....or...
Prize peas?
The choice is clear.
Pizza prize.
And a great deal more didn't even know why we are there in the first place.
Standard Disclaimer: Obviously they need more cell phone towers courtesy of some shadow government contractor.
White.... Nobel Savages.
the deep state narco trade depends greatly on Afghan opium. the heroin processing and dealing has provided the richest source of black money, unaccounted cash. how many pay-offs depend on this? and without that the corruption mechanism would weaken greatly.
the narco trade will not be touched. every available mercenary and politician will defend it to the death.
Plus it helps to have them close to Syria, you know, just in case they get hungry and want to pop over there for a hamburger, while accidentally overthrowing a regime or ... does that even make sense? I don't know. Perhaps I should consult a map before I type such things ...
SOMEBODY HAS TO PROTECT THE CABAL's OPIUM PRODUCTION OPERATION
When does training end and occupation begin?
Many British troops never left.
The cemetiys and war memorials are everywhere
Same as it ever was, for two thousand years in Afghanistan.
Nuke it, or lose and then leave anyway. Just a matter of time,which only the Afghans have.
Somebody has to guard the poppy fields and processing centers, right?
One trillion dollars worth of heroin comes out of Afghanistan every year. That's why we're there, that's why we are staying.
Langley needs the money to run their wars.
@JustObserving: "US troops will be in Afghanistan forever."
Tue, but with one caveat: for as long as the crumbling empire manages to remain on its feet.
.
But wait, there's MORE!
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/10/14/cuban-military-forces-deployed-to-syria-to-operate-russian-tanks-say-sources/
That's a nice "fuck you!" from the Castros.
A coalition of the willing.
The Castros! Number one with a bullet!
To bad Barry won't try and assisinate them.
FORWARD LEE HARVEY!
Everybody wants a piece of U.S. butt. Syrias gonna get real crowded.
Oh, the Cubans are saying they're expert at operating Russian tanks. Time to drop off a few more pallets of shoulder fired missiles. But that's ok, Cuba has free health-care.
Taliban sounds so friendly though.
yup they want to destroy more than 400,000 U.S. football fields of poppy land. Guess the good guys talibanis are not good anymoree.
If you like your troops in Afghanistan, you can keep your troops in Afghanistan.
Hell, you'll need more than that to beat the Russians with your new "fortify and mortify" plan! Time to requisition more materiel and money! Re-institute the draft! Woman and gays first, (to be fair and politically correct). Obama: "I love the smell of debt in the morning, smells like... bankruptcy."
We lied to some folks
It never gets old
Obama should pay Russia to bomb them
I was wondering if Putin's move in Syria may have influenced Obama's actions in Afghanistan.
Oh, no. Can't you read? His "allies" begged him to stay.
I just wonder who these allies are?
not Doctors w/out Borders?
The MIC
Ever read "Catch-22" -- Joseph Heller?
Does anyone here know exactly how many fronts we're fighting on? I know they laughed at a leader once that fought on two fronts.
Obama to deploy 300 US troops to Cameroon to fight Boko Haram
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/14/obama-deployment-us-troops-...
One front.
Us / Everybody else.
The poor forsaken little CIA assets in Syria need somewhere to flee
And, we will stay in Afghanistan as long as the Taliban, ISIS and Al-CIA-duh needs our support. Or at least as long as they have any more hospitals to bomb.
Actually Taliban is not a CIA asset and that is exactly, why the USA is stuck in Afghanistan and cannot leave. Taliban are radical nationalists, who hate anything American, and of course as the USA meddling and destruction in the region grows, Taliban will get more and more supporters among the local population. Sometimes people prefer their own radicals and dictators to foreign ones:-) But this is the difference between Syria and Afghanistan: Russia is in a country, where most population support them in their fight against foreing-paid mercenaries, while the USA in Afghanistan is in a country, which is increasingly nationalistic and anti-American and getting out of control. You can bet that more and more US troops will die there.
MIC motto: money talks nobody walks
I'm sure that the worshipers in the Obowelmovement are over joyed with his stead fast leadership.
Obozo the clown marches on...Let the killings continue!
Now,,now, listen...Obama was skeptical about bring home those troops from the get go, but you have to try different things folks.
Let me translate that....
Folks = stupid people.
"Let Putin go into Syria - where he will get bogged down"
Obama is testing the 'bogged down' part out in Afghanistan to make sure it works. Of course, it only works if the politicians hamstring the military in order to prevent winning!
Putin doesn't have oatmeal for brains like our leaders do. He has already set a deadline for the mission, 4 months from what I read in Tass and RT.
Do the Russians have a saying for "Mission Creep"?
The Russian are never leaving Syria anymore than the US has plans on pulling out of South Korea.
The Russians were smart not to take the bait in Ukraine and send troops to fight in the Donbass.
I guess the US hoped to bogg them down in the Donbass but Vlad knew the prize was in Syria.
All future wars are energy/resource wars.
Now Obama is sending troops to Cameroon.
Definitely all Bush's fault.
Because nothing projects strength like killing weak, helpless ebola ridden natives. King Leopold woukld be proud.
The fight is over who gets to control Eurasia. At this moment, Russia-Iraq-Iran-Hezbollah-China coalition is winning that fight. Keeping the troops in Afghanistan and other countries in the region interrupts their control just like IS's control over Palmyra interrupts China's Silk Road.
Our troups are like but a few grains of sand at the beach compared to this:
Russia and China are the founding member states of The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) an intergovernmental economic and military alliance of mutual security.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization Forces:
Active personnel 5,325,000
Reserve personnel 7,675,000
Available personnel for immediate activation and Conscription 192,039,958
Total of personnel 205,039,958
The economic and numerical might of China, together with the military prowess and vast nuclear arsenal of Russia.
http://www.sectsco.org/EN123/
Impressive figures but who has the most oatmeal? ;-) (non-GMO)
Mackinder Heartland.
He probably got word from Langley not to fuck with the poppies.
Seems some group opposed to the See-I-aye might want to f' with the poppies to curtail Langley's dirty tricks ability. Are there any groups in the world opposed to the CIA? What about that place in Kosovo where they trans-ship it all?
The history of the heroin trade and who has traditionally owned and run it is fairly enlightening. The British government supported the owners of the heroin trade in the opium wars against China.
One might think the opium traders are themselves more powerful than governments if they can order governments around.
What a fucking oatmeal head.....
So what's our mission there? Helping opium growers grow better poppys? Is Monsanto involved? LoL , Or are we giving hundreds of billions to moderate maggots that behead Christians like we do in Syria? Or third option are we doing both and all?
Is it what he calls a 360 degree change on foreign policy???
Squirrels who change mind in middle of road often lose it.
-Confucius
poppy crops is such a wonderful business model that it is hard to resist temptation to continue
obama sould let Putin and the russians just go in afganstan and pu the place right:))
The russians know how to clear a battlefeild well as they show in syria.
Amazing how western media just doesnt mention the relentless FAILED US policies......... ITs like a bad movie, but most probably it aint made in hollywood (defunct) these days :))))))
I am guessing that all of the policies have been successful. We simply do not know what those policies are and they will not tell us because then they would be exposed for what they truly are.
Another 10,000 stranded when the world financial system resets. There will be bake sales to bring em home.
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
-Kipling
He had somewhat of a wry wit.
The ancient Greeks have a tale of the "10,000" ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Thousand_(Greek_mercenaries)
Sounds like Xenophon redux.
Is he aiming for 2nd Noble Peace of Shit Prize???
Putin has him guessing. Obama is afraid Russia will go there and f him up the ass arming the Afghans the way he got caught arming ISIS in Syria.
Putin would not arm the terrorists to settle a score. He is too consistant and honest. He is not a self defeating dumbass like Obama. Obama is running from his own shadow.
He promised to be the most transparent President in history, televising all congressional and executive deliberations on CSPAN. Looks like he renegged on another promise there in Afghanistan. Maybe the Afghan Heroine cartel offered him a lucrative consulting job after he steps down from office.
This cannot be good news for the Wedding Party business in the Hindu Kush
But It can be good news for funeral parlors
and hellfire manufacture LM
"In short, The White House’s decision to keep troops on the ground is just the latest example of constantly compounding Mid-East foreign policy blunders"
Blunders, huh? The puppeteers are playing the audience again, to the pleasure of both.
Someone has to protect those poppy fields for the CIA...
Beat me to the punch!
By 2010, Afghanistan was already the U.S.A.'s longest war, beating the 8.5 years of Vietnam. By now it has been 14, almost 15, years. 15 fucking years. Fuck me. Are you fucking kidding me. Obama wants more? Fuck me.
US Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq to Cost $6 trillion
Link: www.globalresearch.ca/us-wars-in-afghanistan-iraq-to-cost-6-trillion/535...
Fiat debt money means nothing if you can print an infinite amount. Power means everything.
So, the US government, led by the CIA, launches an attack on a foreign country and its government for no reason other than to secure opium production and pipeline routes, murdering hundreds of thousands of the rightful inhabitants ... and the US Mainstream Media then calls the local people defending their country "terrorists"? Isn't that pretty screwy?
The world has an ethical and moral screw loose.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/14/obama-announces-deployment-of-300-troops-to-cameroon.html
to fight another terrorist faction Boko Haram to whom CIA has been supplying weapons covertly.
Wikileaks: Boko Haram Is A CIA Covert OperationBoko Haram=Homo Barak.
I wonder how the service men and women feel about this. Still amazed, with all the retired and active military personnel in America after 40+ years of pointless wars we have not seen a military coup.
Military coupes are just not practical where every square foot of road is either booby trapped or pot holed.
Tanks and Mraps are a much safer option.
While coupes may be faster, the lack of armor and weaponry leaves them at a disadvantage.
Oh...you said coup, (kooo), sorry.
Never mind.
Conscripted citizen levies are a powerful political force asking: "Bring the boyz back home" after a lenghty campaign. Professional armies...
We need more Hopium to keep our markets alive. They must ensure the supply is steady.
Reason to think that oil might recover from the lower levels of the last couple of days?
http://tripstrading.com/2015/10/15/oil-1-hour-chart-falling-wedge/
Obama's...Keystone Cops foriegn policy. Could he be worse?
Well.. this is expected already.
US need more body bag (don't forget to return the dog tag. It wasn't supposed to appears in ebay).
And those VA veterans hosp, need more invalid patients to left to die in their hosp.
Good for you assmeereekaa..
I hope your govt in increase it to 250k
So those ISIS, Al-Nusra, AQAP, AQ, Pakistan muuuullllaaahhh, can share their targets.
Should i make normal mail to your oatmeal potus??
lets send Obama LGBT troops there...with the new Secretary of the Army at their front....a battalion of each! That should scare the taliban
When Ben Carson takes office I hope the first order he gives as Commander-in-Chief is to pull every last US soldier out of Afghanistan and close the US embassy in Kabul. Enough is enough.
You might want to check Carson's talking points. He's been infected by the neocons. Favors confronting Russia & China EVERYWHERE.
War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.
The Negro puppet has incompetent pupper masters.
you said puppet, that's raciss
"....two wars were themselves triggered by the largest terrorist attack on US soil in history which was perpetrated by a group that got its start with funding and support from the US when Osama bin Laden was fighting the Soviets in ... Afghanistan. ...."
And so the beat goes on. Throw in a little truth mixed with a lot of horse hockey and fiction becomes fact. The meme continues, now going on fifteen years, a trillion dollars or so and many dead soldiers.
The Taliban were never the enemy until the ussa invaded on very false pretenses. Now they're fighting to regain their country and will win whether we approve of their style of government or not. They'll just keep bleeding us of money and blood until, like Vietnam, we leave whimpering with our tails tucked and the world laughing at the bully that couldn't. Again.
What a sad headstone epitaph for the land of the free and home of the brave...
The sky's the limit, this time I'm switching to glide.
Another jobs program for unemployed illegal immigrants.
Come and get your free citizenship.
James Comey and James Clapper fuck underage goats.
War protifiteers rule!
It might have cost the Russians their Soviet empire but at least they had brains enough to GTFO of Afhanistan in under one decade.
And who on earth needs to conquer a country full of goat fuckers and pedophiles anyway?
Oh Jeez
Let the Rooskies have Afghan back
It just aint worth it.
I mean really, if your talking of investments and all.